


moving with the moon

by moonvalentine



Series: circumstance [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Grief, M/M, summer rain and gay longing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-26 21:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20396443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonvalentine/pseuds/moonvalentine
Summary: Nights here were like this, especially in the summer: warm, slow, wrapped in some gauzy thing that kept everything else out, including time — at least until one of them remembered it existed.





	moving with the moon

**Author's Note:**

> this is a sort-of-excerpt, sort-of-sidething for TMOS, a prequel to another fic i'm working on, but i felt like this was just fine on its own.
> 
> god bless sns, have a good day

.

The rain was coming down in sheets, hard enough to bruise the earth. Sasuke stood in the open doorway to the backyard, just staring at it, listening to the loud hush. Impervious to it.

He would often retreat into introspection like this, and often without notice. Naruto thought trying to fill up the silence in this house would help lessen that need. But then, he realized not long after, neither did allowing for the quiet. No matter what they were doing, no matter what he said to him, Sasuke always fell away for a long moment, needing time alone. And Naruto had learned to let him.

He leaned back against the gnarled armrest of the couch, staring at the tall, shadowed silhouette, the curves of its shoulders and their blades visible by soft orange light from a single lamp in the kitchen. Nights here were like this, especially in the summer: warm, slow, wrapped in some gauzy thing that kept everything else out, including time — at least until one of them remembered it existed.

“You have duty tomorrow?”

Sasuke’s voice was low and even, somehow audible through the thick of noise cooling the air that entered the house. Naruto nodded. And then remembered that his response needed to be verbal to be known.

“Yeah. Bright ‘n early.” There was a slight dip in the pit of his stomach, like someone had dropped a pebble in the water. Not being able to sleep in sucked. It also meant he couldn’t stay up as late as he’d hoped to.

Sasuke was quiet again. And so still, too, like he didn’t have to breathe to exist. He simply tilted his head against the door frame, allowing it to rest there while he thought, or stared, or maybe both. Maybe neither. There was a low sparkle to the rain in front of him, every drop glistening with whatever light it could grab this deep into the evening.

“You shouldn’t walk home in this,” he finally said, following a brewing purr of thunder. “Just stay the night.”

It was hard to decipher his tone. But it didn’t matter. This offer came occasionally, and he never extended it unless it was okay to say yes. Sometimes, like tonight, he didn’t seem to think there was another option.

“Okay,” Naruto said, feeling something bizarrely close to relief.

They stayed like that for an immeasurable amount of time. The rain didn’t let up. Its constant pour was so soothing, and each pitter of raindrops against the surface of the back patio was like a metronome for a lullaby, and just as gentle. He could feel himself falling asleep on that sofa, knowing it was too small for comfort, not caring. Soon enough, though, he heard the telltale slide of the door closing, compressing the sound of the rain until it was sealed off, nothing more than a whisper behind the glass. Sasuke walked toward him, eyes on the coffee table.

“Don’t fall asleep there,” he very calmly commanded. “Go upstairs. Just — clean that up before you leave tomorrow.”

Naruto now drowsily eyed the empty boxes of food on the table beside him. Most of the salty smell of it had been lovingly lured out of the door all night, diffused by the rain.

“I bought the food,” he murmured, smirking. “‘S your turn, now. And your house. You clean it up.”

Sasuke huffed, walking soundlessly past him to continue toward the stairs. “See if I ever let you come over again.”

Naruto felt himself grin. He’d said that the last four times.

There were a few seconds of sleepy delay before Naruto followed Sasuke up the stairs, which creaked with each step, right into the unlit hallway waiting for them. Sasuke went into the bathroom and flipped the light on, shut the door until it was cracked just barely open, letting a sliver of light run down the floor leading into his bedroom. Naruto went straight to the bed.

It was the only one in the house. He knew better than to flop directly onto it, but he did anyway, and wheezed loudly when its solid mattress met the plane of his back. He was almost certain that sleeping on the floor would be more comfortable, but — but it was fine. It was just for the night.

He turned onto his side, slipping an arm beneath the pillow under his head. It smelled so _clean_ compared to his own. He stuck his face in it, a huge muffled inhale accompanying the motion, and closed his eyes. He wasn’t comfortable, but he still felt that way. So strangely comfortable. He stretched his legs past the foot of the bed, his toes curling off the edge, contented, like a cat’s tail. The sound of the sink running was faint, but it put him even more at ease. It felt nice, always, having someone else in the house.

He was nearly asleep by the time the sink stopped, and the only running water was the rain, still going strong outside the window. The room almost glowed with it, an iridescent blanket coming down from the roof.

“You’re disgusting for not at least brushing your teeth,” he heard Sasuke say as he closed the door, encasing them in soft, full quiet.

“Hey,” Naruto griped, though slurredly. “Last time I used your toothbrush, you cut a hole in the crotch of my pants.”

“I exacerbated an existing rip,” Sasuke said, the slink of sheets being pulled back following his words. “There’s a difference.”

Naruto snorted at him. “You’re a dick.”

He slipped into bed, his weight even and steady against the mattress. Naruto was facing him, so he turned to face the window. He always did that, though, regardless. It was a wonder he let Naruto sleep in here at all.

Neither of them talked for a long while. Just breath, and a mutual, unspoken agreement to succumb to sleep. But neither of their breaths slowed enough to count — it was just familiar silence, without expectation, without a word to fill it.

After long enough, Naruto opened his eyes with a strange tinge of alertness, looking at how the width of Sasuke’s shoulders rose and fell with each inhale and exhale, too measured to be unconscious. Still watching the rain, then.

“You okay?” he rasped, staring at the way Sasuke’s dark hair curled and feathered behind his ear, the ends falling back against his neck.

“I’m fine,” came the muted, monotone response. Naruto almost sighed. Agreeing to disagree, as usual.

And then, a whole minute later: “What do you mean?”

“Dunno,” Naruto said after a surprised pause. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He licked his lips. “You just seemed kinda...off today. More, like, distant than usual, I guess.”

“Hm.” It was an acknowledgment, and nothing else.

That was it, then.

Naruto just stared, like the dark folds of Sasuke’s t-shirts would speak to him instead. His eyes traced the black hair so neatly splayed against the white of the pillow, feeling the fleeting urge to blow on it and make it move, or brush it with his hand, make it fan out even further.

He turned onto his back instead, closed his eyes.

He was almost close to sleeping again when he heard the slightest inhale through Sasuke’s mouth.

“I miss my brother,” he said plainly, so much like a whisper that Naruto almost didn’t hear it.

His eyes opened, and his heartbeat picked up just by pure instinct. All he could see was the gray of the ceiling. He turned his head, and the sound his own hair made against the pillow seemed too loud.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” he asked, the only thing he could really say.

Sasuke hadn’t budged. It was another moment before he responded.

“No.”

Naruto swallowed, his tongue feeling thick.

“Okay.”

The rain was still there, constant, protecting the words and the room they were in. This was a secret. That was undeniable. Sasuke’s feelings were always a secret.

Without a thought to it, Naruto reached a hand across the valley of blanket between them, the few inches that separated him from Sasuke’s back. It found his elbow, and Naruto very gently pried it to extension with his bandaged fingers, slid his palm down the length of Sasuke’s forearm to meet his waiting hand. His only hand.

Their palms overlapped, interlocked, and lingered, and Sasuke showed no sign of letting go, even with the awkwardness of the angles in their wrists. He let them stay like that. Naruto’s breath was hanging by a thread in his chest. He only breathed again when Sasuke did.

He wished he could do more. But he didn’t know what to do. They both had lost so much — _so_ much. But that was never enough.

He wanted to see his face, whatever might have shown on it. But all he could see was the smooth trace of his hair tucked behind his pale ear, the paler curve of his neck, the white of the nape so visible between the frayed ends of his hair and the loosened collar of his shirt.

He wanted to say more. He wanted, viscerally and out of nowhere, to press his mouth to that slip of skin — to tell him _I’m here._ The urge was so strong that it ached.

But it was okay. Their hands were joined, and that was more than enough.

Eventually, somehow, he did start to fall asleep again, his eyes closing against his will, blinking against the sight of Sasuke’s dark figure. He was comforted by the knowledge that Sasuke was here. In the village. In this room. Home. And Naruto had all the time in the world to show him that he was here, too.

Home, with him.


End file.
